ACEA: BEV registrations up 20%

In January, 154,230 new battery-electric cars were registered, slightly fewer than in February. However, this still represented a 24.3 per cent growth compared to the same month last year. In February, although around 4,000 more battery-electric cars were registered, this equated to only a 20.6 per cent increase due to a stronger performance in February 2025.

After the first two months of the current year, ACEA recorded a total of 312,369 new battery-electric cars in its statistics, marking a 22.3 per cent increase. In total, 1.66 million new cars were registered in the EU during this period (-1.2 %), with battery-electric cars achieving a market share of 18.8 per cent. According to ACEA, this underlines ‘the continued potential for further growth.’ However, in February alone, 865,437 new cars were registered, representing a 1.4 per cent increase.

Italy overtakes Belgium and the Netherlands

As in January, the four largest battery-electric car markets in the EU—accounting for 61 per cent of electric vehicle registrations—presented a mixed picture. France (+38.5 %) and Germany (+26.3 %) saw significant growth, while Belgium (-11.0 %) and the Netherlands (-34.9 %) experienced double-digit declines.

With over 46,000 new battery-electric cars registered in February alone, Germany remains Europe’s largest single market, ahead of France (32,370 BEVs) and the United Kingdom, a non-EU country, which recorded 21,840 new electric registrations.

Notable, for example, is the development in Italy: with a substantial increase of 81.3 per cent, the Southern European country registered 12,541 new battery-electric cars in February, overtaking markets such as Belgium (11,667 BEVs) and the Netherlands (which, with the aforementioned decline, recorded only 6,805 BEVs). Denmark also surpassed the Netherlands with 9,736 battery-electric cars, achieving an 81 per cent market share in February.

Positive developments were also seen in Spain (8,889 BEVs, +45.4 %), Sweden (7,650 BEVs, +11.3 %), Portugal (4,732 BEVs, +19.9 %), and Austria (4,439 BEVs, +4.9 %). Croatia (+271.7 %), Malta (+143.5 %), and Lithuania (+111.9 %) even recorded triple-digit growth, albeit from a significantly lower base, sometimes starting with as few as 46 battery-electric cars in February 2025.

In February, the strongest growth in drive types was not among battery-electric cars but plug-in hybrids: with 83,772 new registrations, PHEVs surpassed the previous year’s result by 32.1 per cent. The largest drive type in terms of numbers remains hybrids (excluding PHEVs), of which ACEA recorded 334,791 new registrations (+10.1 %). However, this category also includes mild hybrids, which can scarcely drive electrically and function for customers like conventional internal combustion engines—albeit with slightly lower fuel consumption.

As a result, all partially electric drive types saw gains, while pure internal combustion engines lost ground: petrol cars recorded 199,910 new registrations (-17.9 %), and diesel cars, with 70,366 units, were 12.8 per cent below the previous year. However, there is a slight ambiguity here, as mild hybrids are counted among hybrids rather than internal combustion engines.

ACEA does not distinguish between drive types in its registration figures by brand and manufacturer. This prevents analysis of manufacturers with a purely electric model range. Since many Chinese manufacturers, which initially entered Europe with only battery-electric cars, now also offer (plug-in) hybrids, Tesla remains the sole exception: the US manufacturer sold 13,740 battery-electric cars in the EU in February, 29.1 per cent more than in the same month last year. In the current year, Tesla has recorded 20,941 new EU registrations, 16.7 per cent above the previous year.

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